‘Blacklist,’ ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Popular Early With DVR Owners

Update: According to NBC, “The Blacklist” grew 4.362 million viewers from its same-night 12.58 to an L3 total of 16.95 million — the largest three-day DVR playback tally for any broadcast series — premiere or otherwise — on record. Over the years, the only other shows that have gained gain more than 4 million total viewers within the first three days of a telecast are comedies “Modern Family” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

Early DVR data for the new TV season came in over weekend, and the top newcomers padded their demo totals nicely.

According to Nielsen’s L3 estimates, which measure DVR playback for three days after a program’s initial telecast, ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of Shield” swelled from its same-night rating of 4.7 in adults 18-49 to a whopping 6.5 — putting it ahead of both nights of NBC’s “The Voice” to stand as the No. 1 show in the demo for Monday and Tuesday.

No other show could quite match the build of “SHIELD,” though Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow” jumped 1.5 ratings points (from 3.1 to 4.6) and NBC’s “The Blacklist” grew 1.3 points, from 3.8 to 5.1.

CBS’ “Hostages” grew nine tenths from 1.8 to 2.7, or 50%, but that still left it well behind its Monday timeslot competitors, “Blacklist” and ABC’s “Castle” (from 2.2 to 3.2), both of which gained more in raw numbers than the Eye newbie. CBS noted that with the L3 gains it saw for its Monday shows, the net’s nightly average was up vs. the opening night of last season.

The 50% build in L3 for “Hostages” was the largest by percentage for any Monday or Tuesday show, slightly ahead of “Sleepy Hollow” (48%), Fox’s “New Girl” (48%, from 2.1 to 3.1) and “Castle” (45%).

The smallest gain for a new show — usually not a good sign for its survival — was ABC’s already under-performing “Lucky 7″ (up 0.2, from 1.3 to 1.5).

In total viewers, “NCIS” jumped from 20.02 million to 23.45 million. “Agents of SHIELD” grew from about 12.1 million to 15.8 million.